Use Inkscape[1] and do it yourself. It's amazing what even a newbie can do with it in an hour or two. You can always pay someone to make a slicker version later, which will be much easier if you have something to use as a base.
I did the same, after two months of repeated failed attempts to hire someone to design a logo (one of the logo companies we hired sent us about a dozen horrible ideas plus the Verizon V-Cast logo, as though we wouldn't notice). I've since made two logos that I'm reasonably happy with, both using Inkscape. I'm not a designer, by any stretch, but the T-shirts we had printed up with this one look great:
And I made a logo for our example website (our product manages webservers and websites, so in our demo video we build a website from scratch and launch a useful application in a couple of minutes): http://doxfer.com/twiki/pub/Main/WebPreferences/logo.png
This one was whipped up in literally five minutes (once you know how to make the Web 2.0 "shiny" text thing, it's numbingly simple to do).
Neither are going to win awards, but they've allowed me to get on with work, and I'm not ashamed of them. When we take funding, or when we're making more money, I'll hire someone famously good to re-imagine our logo. Until then, I've been burned enough by bad anonymous logo shops.
One thing to keep in mind, that most non-designers (and even some designers) do wrong: Keep it simple. Imagine it in black and white. Imagine it on a T-shirt (and imagine paying for all of the colors you put in it--twice the colors is twice the price for printing), coffee mug, letterhead, and your website. Look at successful companies for inspiration, not just Web 2.0 companies (even if you're building a Web 2.0 app). You'll almost never go wrong by simplifying a logo design, but you'll certainly go wrong by putting too much crap in it. Also, pick your colors using a color scheme generator--not at random. Unless you've got the queer eye, you'll pick ugly colors. I guarantee it.
I concur. I went from never using inkscape to having a not horribly embarrassing logo in about 2 hours.
Learn how to use the gradient tool, it is key.
You can see what I did here: http://carhuntr.com/index.html
http://designoutpost.com - you pay a set fee, and a slew of designers make a logo based on your description. They then iterate till they get it right, and don't get paid till you choose one. Pretty good methodology, i've tried it twice and got what I wanted both times.
We had good luck getting interesting designs from this site, we are actually in the final stages right now. We were waiting to complete the full purchase before posting about it. So far I would highly recommend it as an interesting way to get a large variety of interesting ideas. The costs range from $150 to about $300 or so for most logo contests that I have seen.
If your interested I highly recommend browsing other peoples public logo forums to check out the kind/quality of work being produced.
We ended up paying $180, if you want to see the final result of that we got, we just made a post with it. If you look through the flickr pictures you can see some of the options we received.
My new startup needs a logo, and I'm not sure if I trust my artistic ability to make one. What would you folks recommend?
If it matters, I want the logo to be a Dutch windmill but futuristic looking (or a windmill/robot hybrid type of deal). I'll announce my startup on here soon, hopefully with a logo :-)
http://gfxcontests.com - offer a nominal reward to get several people to submit designs in a competition.
I found out about these guys through MashupCamp 3, which was run by Mass Event Labs. Mass Event Labs offered $100 for a logo design and got many entries actually, check out the discussion at http://gfxcontests.com/showthread.html?t=713
I don't have my draw program with me, but if you want, give more details. I do some monochrome stuff if you're ok with that. And no, I'm not a pro so I don't charge, but I enjoy doing logo-like design.
Right now, I can't really see how a windmill and a robot will go together without looking kinda silly (think propeller hat) or sadistic (blades), if they are merged together.
I'd be interested to see what you put together. Can I email you?
Yeah, maybe the robot part is out then :-)
Maybe just a traditional windmill like one of these below, but then having the building part of the windmill be made of shiny metal. Perhapss the blades could be shiny metal too. ? Can you make that "shiny" effect?
Whoa... you sure about the robot? If it fits into some grand vision I'm sure there are creative people who can integrate it somehow.
I have attempted a chrome effect before and I feel without further training I won't match the pros. My designs are plain, and I like to merge text into the picture. I don't have good samples with me but here are two.
rather obscure, but the text reads to "pktw."
if you like this style, yes I have one or two sketches in mind. If you'd like to blend some text in, the first letter maybe, I need to know that. Finally, if you want a vector file I probably won't be working fast -- because sadly I don't have AI. And I'm very unfamiliar with inkscape. What I'll end up doing is roughly tracing a paper sketch. You'd need to get somebody to smooth out the edges after that.
Nah, the robot's not neccessary. I don't need any words or letters in the logo, just a picture. I'd probably want a vector a file though. Well, don't worry about it if it's too much work. I'll probably end up using one of the pay services suggested in this page.
Kind of a neat tool, but I didn't see anything that caught my eye. Except the price. A hundred bucks for a logo I design myself online with no designer even telling me it's crap is just a little excessive.
My recommendation is to find a design student and offer 'em a hundred bucks for a logo.
if you decide to make your own, be sure to use illustrator or somesuch "vector" program. don't use photoshop else you'll have to redraw later when you need it at another size.
1. http://www.inkscape.org/